Mini Moni meets Weezer

If you haven’t seen it yet, you should check out Weezer‘s music video for “Pork and Beans”, which appeared today:

It features reenactments of a whole bunch of viral videos, including the infamous “Dramatic Chipmunk” (actually a prairie dog) clip:

This clip actually had its origins in the Mini Moni Chiccha! segment on the 2000.11.26 episode of Hello! Morning (the prairie dog turning its head is at ~2:40):

Weezer’s reenactment of the Dramatic Chipmunk (seen near the beginning and near the end) features stand-ins for the members of 1st generation Mini Moni that appeared in the original episode, but alas, they don’t look anything like the real Mini Moni … and all I see of Mika is a hand on the table (!) … :(

Compare:

Original:

From “Pork and Beans”:

I am very curious what the text is on the design on the fake Mini Moni’s shirts. The original one was:

But I can’t make it out due to the low resolution.

Anyway, awesomeness indeed!

MINI MONI and WEEZER FTW!!!

More H!P in Western media PLZ!!!!!!111

Update: Further investigation brought up what looks like the transcript of an interview Weezer lead Rivers Cuomo gave on January 23 on the radio show SCHOOL OF LOCK!, in which Cuomo says he was introduced to J-pop through Mini Moni’s first single, “Mini Moni. Jankenpyon!”. (If this is not actually what he said, please let me know.)

Coincidentally, I actually saw Cuomo in person a few times in Spring 2006, when I cross-registered for a class at Harvard that met right before a class he was taking, in the same room (this was when he was re-attending Harvard to finish his degree). I should have gotten that autograph when I had the chance… >.<

Mini Moni probably wouldn’t have been referenced had it not been for the runaway popularity of the prairie dog clip, which by itself doesn’t show Mini Moni. But the fact that the Weezer video works the immediate context of that clip into the video shows some dedication … and we do have evidence that Rivers Cuomo enjoys J-pop enough to remember what song introduced him to it…. whether or not he likes Mini Moni … :-D

And yes, definitely more Western artists should confess their love for H!P…

The fake Minimoni footage comes from a YouTube video called something like “The Dramatic Chipmunk Breaks Out.” I gather Weezer used the fake footage due to copyright difficulty with the original footage. I believe the logo on the shirts of the ladies in the fake footage is the same as the real one.